Shelley f, occasionally m
English: transferred use of the surname, the most famous bearer of which was the English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822). The surname is a local name from one of the various places (in Essex, Suffolk, and Yorkshire) named in Old English as the ‘wood (or clearing) on (or near) a slope (or ledge)’. The name is now almost exclusively female, in part no doubt as a result of association with SHIRLEY (SEE Shirley) (the actress Shelley Winters was born in 1922 as Shirley Schrift), and in part due to the characteristically feminine ending -ie, -y.
First names dictionary. 2012.